278 



\ommon of t|e ^hlm oi cSIjafte$torg* 



By the Rev. "W". H. Jones, M.A., F.S.A. 



;^^^|^^EW", except those who have paid especial attention to the 

 ■ysubject, are at all aware of the large amount of landed 

 property in Wiltshire, which, in the middle ages, belonged 

 to religious houses. At the time of the Domesday survey, no less 

 than 1930 hides, an assessment representing in the whole probably 

 some 250,000 acres, or nearly two-fifths of the county, were more 

 or less under the control of ecclesiastical persons. The largest 

 territorial possessions were those of the Abbot of Malmesbury ; 

 then came those of the Abbot of Glastonbury — of the Prior of St. 

 Swithin, Winchester — and of the Abbess of Wilton. Next among 

 landed proprietors followed the Abbess of Shaftesbury, whose abbey, 

 situated at the verj' border of Wilts and Dorset, had, not inappro- 

 priately, a tolerably equal extent of property in each county. As 

 years passed on, these possessions, large as they were at the time 

 of Domesday, were increased by gifts from various benefactors, it 

 being a custom, with regard at least to Shaftesbury, that when any 

 person of substance devoted a daughter or kinswoman ^ to the oflSce 

 of a nun, she should bring ' a portion ' with, her, the proceeds of 

 which afterwards formed part of the general revenues of the abbey. 

 Hence, at the beginning of the reign of Edward III. (a.d. 1326), 

 out of the 39 hundreds into which the county was then divided, 

 the lordship of no less than fourteen, amongst which were some of 

 the most extensive, was vested in some bishop, or the head of some 



' In this manner the ' chapel ' and tithes of ' Broctune ' (Broughton GifFord) 

 became the property of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. In the Harl. MS. 61, fol. 54, 

 we have a list of lands so acquired under the heading, — ' Terras quas cum tiliabus 

 homines dederunt, &c.' Amongst them are lands, &c., at Broughton, and Keevil, 

 given respectively by Gundreda, and Ernulfus de Hesding, in either case, at the 

 dedication of a kinswoman as a uun ; — (' cum quadam tua cognata moniali.') 



